Juno Temple: portrait of an expat starlet

“When I was at Bedales,” the actress Juno Temple told me recently, speaking about her posh English high school, “I once got my buddy Rupert Everett to write my drama essay for me. But that wasn’t such a great idea — it only got a C-minus.”

It’s an anecdote of precocious mischief that mirrors the personality of one of Britain’s most promising rising stars. I met Juno at a bar in Park City, Utah, where she was promoting two new movies. I introduced myself with the best line I could think of to secure an interview: “I think you’re amazing,” I raved. “You remind me of Kate Winslet – only more beautiful.”

Her big, grey-blue eyes widened and she embraced me in a warm hug. “That is so, like, lovely of you to say.”

Juno Temple: Flying the Flag

The Indie It-Girl of Sundance was wearing black leather trousers and a stained blue top. Her pretty face and tangled hair gave her the look of a punk doll. She wore two rings, a gold one she said had been given to her by her mother; and, on her wedding finger, her grandmother’s diamond engagement ring.

“Bet that keeps the guys on their best behaviour,” I quipped.

“Damn right it does!”

She was clutching a glass of red wine – “my fifth,” she said proudly. Alcohol combined with my flattery to open the flood-gates of her candor. Her reedy voice was hoarse from the round of interviews she had been giving, but she was happy to tell me her intriguing life story.

Juno was born 21 years ago into a showbiz family. Her mother is a producer, Amanda Pirie. Her father is Julien Temple, the film director who made the two most important films about the Sex Pistols, The Great Rock ‘n’ Roll Swindle (1980) and The Filth and the Fury (2000). Temple also directed Absolute Beginners (1986), the disastrous musical that helped destroy Goldcrest studio. Temple brushed himself off and went on to direct music videos for Janet Jackson, David Bowie and Whitney Houston, as well as the 2006 documentary, about the British music festival.

“My parents are f—–g cool,” she told me, using the expletive for emphasis, as she does repeatedly. “From when I was really tiny, they used to take me to Glastonbury. That was like our family tradition.”

Juno speaks with a transatlantic accent, turning Ts into Ds – as in “wa-der” rather than “wa-ter” – and that reflects her background. “I was born in England,” she said, “which was, like, uncool, because it would make my life so much easier if I had been an American. Then my family moved to America, where I spent my first four years.”

Her name originated from a visit that her parents paid to the Grand Canyon when her mother was pregnant. “They named these places with Egyptian mythology words, like Jupiter Temple. My parents found out they were standing on Juno Temple and, bingo.“

Juno moved back to England when she was four, to live in a 16th century farmhouse in Somerset. “It was just like Alice in Wonderland being there,” she remembers. “It’s really the only thing I miss about England.”

This was the age she first wanted to become an actress: “My dad had this big stripy couch and I was lying on it, and he showed me Jean Cocteau’s La Belle et la Bête. It’s one of the most amazing movies of all time. There’s this one moment where the Beast carries Belle through this room and her clothes just transform. I remember thinking, ‘That’s magic – I want to be in movies’.”

Inspiration for a 4-year-old

She went to Enmore Primary School and then got her first acting gig, in her father’s film Vigo: Passion for Life (1998), about the French filmmaker Jean Vigo and his struggle with tuberculosis. “But my dad just cut me totally out of the movie. I was like so pissed.”

She put aside her acting dreams and went to school as a weekly boarder at King’s College, Taunton. She briefly thought about becoming a fashion designer and, when she moved school to Bedales, she chose to study textiles for one of her A-levels. When she was 15, she told her parents she wanted to be an actress. They were supportive.

Her mother passed on an email about an open audition for Notes on a Scandal, an adaptation of Zoe Heller’s dark novel being made by British director Richard Eyre. “I stood in line for like two hours and somehow got the part.”

In the movie, she plays Cate Blanchett’s daughter, and must face the horrifying truth that her mother has been having an affair with a 15-year-old boy at the school where she teaches. “It’s pretty terrifying to be acting alongside Judi Dench,” she said, “but it was totally inspirational too. Judi taught me one thing which was never to read reviews of the movies I am in.”

Juno in Notes on a Scandal

Richard Eyre, her director, praised her: “Perfect manners. Listens to other people. That’s always impressive and unusual in a 15-year-old. And intelligent and very droll, with such a grace about her.”

After that break, the job offers poured in. In Atonement, she dyed her hair red and played Lola, a teenage victim-turned-victimiser, whose apparent rape leads to the tragic separation of the two central lovers, Robbie and Cecilia.

Juno (left) in Atonement

Then she landed the part of a druggy trustafarian bad girl in St Trinian’s although many of her scenes were cut to appease the narco-phobic ratings board.

'St Trinian's'

In The Other Boleyn Girl, she had the opportunity to act alongside two of the leading ladies of the time. “Natalie Portman was just so beautiful,” she said, “although I actually found Scarlett Johansson even more so. I’d like to star in Black Swan II with either of them!”

As Jane Park in 'The Other Boleyn Girl'

Her studies at Bedales suffered with all this excitement: “I was spending most of my time making movies and deciding who to date,” she explained. She enlisted her St Trinian’s co-star Rupert Everett to help her with her drama homework, but, as already noted, his essay did not serve her well. She left Bedales with three A-levels — two Cs and a B.

Two years ago, Juno left Britain and moved to Los Angeles. “That was mainly to be with my boyfriend,” she said. I asked her about this relationship, but she shook her head. “All I’ll tell you is that he’s an actor and I met him at an audition.”

She also left London because she was more likely to land parts in LA. “British film just has to sort itself out,” she said, sadly.

She currently lives in the bohemian neighborhood of Los Feliz – “such a fun part of the world. I love it! Now I just have to sort my f—–g visa out.”

In 2011, Juno could see five of her films hit a screen near you. I saw two of them at Sundance. In the coming-of-age drama Little Birds, she plays Lily, a Californian teenager living on the edge of the filthy but beautiful Salton Sea. She yearns to run away to Los Angeles, but disaster befalls her when she does. “I love Lily,” Juno says, “she’s a time bomb waiting to explode. She’s running, but not toward anything. She thinks she can do whatever she wants and the world f—–g shows her she can’t.”

Juno (right) in 'Little Birds'

Her American accent in the film is impeccable, as is her portrayal of teen angst. Her director, Elgin James, was sitting in the same bar, and I asked him what he thought of her: “Juno’s a rock star about to explode,” the punk rock fanatic and former gang-member said.

Juno also won a big role in Kaboom, which is now playing across America, and advertises itself as “a hyper-stylized Twin Peaks for the Coachella Generation featuring a gorgeous super hot young cast.”

Juno recalls, “I was lucky to get the part. I went to the audition with such a hangover that I had to pull over twice and throw up.”

In the film, she dons her English persona, playing a sexually voracious student called London, who gives lessons on clitoral stimulation to surfer dudes, and sets up a blind-folded three-way with two men.

Kaboom: Juno (left) plots to get her wicked way

I asked her how she felt about doing sex scenes. “I love them, they’re fun. But they aren’t really sexy. For one, there are all these people in the same room as you, which is not really so hot. And then the sex is, like, totally choreographed. The director is calling out ‘touch him there, now sigh, now groan, you know. And then there’s the stuff you have to wear.”

“How do they do that?” I asked. “Did you have to be naked?”

“No, the wardrobe department made this thing for me called a privacy patch.”

“The size of the privacy patch totally depends on the waxing choices of the actress.”

“How about the guy? Does he get a privacy patch too?”

“No, he gets a…” she giggled, “a c–k sock.”

(I had not heard of this cinematographic device before, and didn’t press Juno for design elaboration. However, in the process of diligent fact-checking after the interview, corroborated the existence of the C–k Sock. Here is a picture of an ultra-low-budget specimen:

A more sophisticated version was used in the higher-budget vampire series True Blood. Its wearer, Stephen Moyer, actually auctioned off his‘Sock of Destiny’ on Ebay to raise money for charity, signing it with his co-star and wife Anna Paquin:

I tried not to get too blue with Juno, while still pursuing this c–k-sock scoop. “So what was the experience like working with that, um, costume?” I pressed.

“Oh, it was such a hassle!” she sighed. “The tape kept falling loose with all the grinding we were doing, and, like, his c–k sock kept sticking to my privacy patch. God, we had to do so many takes.”

I asked her how she’d done financially from the movies. “Oh, terribly.”

“What does that mean?” I pried.

“I got two thousand bucks from each film,” she whispered.

“That’s not enough to pay your rent,” I exclaimed.

“I know, but that’s not why I do this job. I love acting. Acting is being a rock star. It’s an addictive roller-coaster. And I love making independent films. It’s like having a second family, although it breaks my heart every time it’s over.”

Juno took home a bigger pay packet from the other films to hit cinema screens this year. In The Three Musketeers – 3D,directed by Paul Thomas Anderson of Magnolia and There will be Blood fame, she is Queen Anne of France. “That was such a good time,” Juno said. “To get to dress up as a Queen after playing these mixed up little girls. I loved it.”

Sneak peek of The Three Musketeers in 3D

In Cracks, which is released in the US on March 18, and is the directorial debut of Ridley Scott’s daughter Jordan, Juno is a brooding English schoolgirl who loses her innocence.

Juno cracks

In Jack and Diane, Juno plays the titular Diane, who transforms into a werewolf whenever she kisses her lesbian lover. The actress playing Jack is another actress with showbiz in her blood, Riley Keough. She has the peculiar biography of being Elvis Presley’s grand-daughter and the step-daughter of Nicolas Cage and Michael Jackson.

“What are you shooting next?” I asked her. “It’s a film about a teapot,” she said enigmatically. “I have to play a twenty-five year old. That’s kinduv scary. How the hell do I become twenty-five?”

“What would you do if you didn’t act?”

“I’d design lingerie. I love lingerie. I used to live right next to Agent Provocateur in London and I spent so much cash there. Lingerie is so powerful for a woman.”

“What do you mean, powerful?”

“Well, for example, when I fly back to LAX, I go through immigration, and then change into a fresh set of Agent Provocateur underwear, and cover up with just a trench coat. I then call my boyfriend and tell him, ‘Come pick me up’.”

I gulped, wondering if her agent would endorse her giving so much information. “Thanks so much, Juno. Can I just get a picture with you for my piece?”

“Sure.”

The first photo we took looked under-exposed. “That was a little flat,” I said to Juno, “Let’s do it once more with feeling!”

She put her arms around my neck and pressed her cheek against mine. “Oh, I do everything with feeling,” she purred.